"The U.S. economy has become very distorted. There has been significant recovery since the Great Recession – amongst high-income individuals, large banks, and large corporations. But the rest of the economy, by contrast, including small businesses and a very significant amount of the labour force, are stuck and still struggling. What we are seeing is not a single economy at all, but rather fundamentally two separate types of economy, increasingly distinct and divergent.” Alan Greenspan

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you don't share this with anyone....Who cares?

George Carlin

Churchill on ending sentences in prepositions:

“This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.”

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

Mark Twain

Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

Mark Twain

Life is short, Occasionally Bend the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.. author unknown

Oscar Wilde used to wonder if people really knew themselves, what was truly unique about their personalities. At one point he said: “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinion, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

The Cinnamon Peeler

If I were a cinnamon peeler I would ride your bed And leave the yellow bark dust On your pillow.

Your breasts and shoulders would reek You could never walk through markets without the profession of my fingers floating over you. The blind would stumble certain of whom they approached though you might bathe under rain gutters, monsoon.

Here on the upper thigh at this smooth pasture neighbour to you hair or the crease that cuts your back. This ankle. You will be known among strangers as the cinnamon peeler's wife.

I could hardly glance at you before marriage never touch you --your keen nosed mother, your rough brothers. I buried my hands in saffron, disguised them over smoking tar, helped the honey gatherers...

When we swam once I touched you in the water and our bodies remained free, you could hold me and be blind of smell. you climbed the bank and said

this is how you touch other women the grass cutter's wife, the lime burner's daughter. And you searched your arms for the missing perfume

and knew

what good is it to be the lime burner's daughter left with no trace as if not spoken to in the act of love as if wounded without the pleasure of a scar.

You touched your belly to my hands in the dry air and said I am the cinnamon Peeler's wife. Smell me.

Michael Ondaatchi

Note: for the following quote "Canadians" can be included.

“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.” â€• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

Jan Michael Looking Wolf is a Kalapuya Native American flute player from Grand Ronde,
Oregon. With 52 National Award recognitions, Looking Wolf performs across the country
sharing flute songs, tribal stories, and the message of One Heart. Speaking of hearts wishing
you blessings on Valentine's Day

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